Research Report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science (Science Education). 2015. / In my Honours degree, I researched on learners’ understanding of meiosis after I had taught them the topic. The study was done on three schools. The results of the study revealed that the majority of learners from my school were unable to identify and explain some concepts in meiosis. The failure of the learners to understand the topic prompted me to reflect on my content knowledge of meiosis and its teaching. To investigate my own content knowledge in this self-study, I used concept maps and CoRes. Concept maps were seeking to develop my content knowledge and CoRes were seeking to develop both content knowledge and pedagogy of teaching meiosis. The aim of the self-study was therefore to improve my content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of meiosis through the use of concept maps and CoRes as planning tools. The development of content knowledge and pedagogy was done with the help of collaborative friends. Of the two planning tools I used (concept maps and CoRes), three concept maps and three CoRes were constructed. Each of the concept maps was analysed using number of concepts identified and the number of propositions. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyse the concept maps. The number of both concepts and propositions gave an indication of the development of content knowledge from one concept map to the other. CoRes were analysed qualitatively using a framework. The framework used focused on curricular saliency, student prior knowledge, what makes the topic difficult or easy, teaching strategies and representations. From these aspects of the framework, the teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogy was identified to see whether there was development from one CoRe to the other. The study revealed that both concept maps and CoRes when used as planning tools can develop the teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogy on meiosis. Concept maps helps to indentify content gaps and misconceptions. CoRes helped me in the identification of the big ideas for the teaching of meiosis, the content which learners need to know and the identification of teaching strategies which can help the topic to be understood better. Recommendations from the study were that teachers should read about what they teach to improve content knowledge. Teachers should team up to produce teaching tools like CoRes.

Thesis (MPH)--University of Limpopo, 2010. / Background: Screening for early detection and diagnosis of diseases and health conditions is an important public health principle. Breast cancer examination is whereby a woman will examine the breast by Breast Self Examination (BSE), Clinical Breast Examination (CBE), and Mammogram. Objective: The main aim of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of breast cancer examination among women attending Extension 2 clinic in Gaborone, Botswana. Method: The cross-sectional quantitative study design to examine knowledge, attitude and practice of women attending Extension 2 clinic in Gaborone was carried out between August and September 2009 using an interviewer administered questionnaire designed by the researcher. Results: The study was conducted among 375 women attended at extension 2 clinic. Study participants had low knowledge of breast cancer examination. The overall mean knowledge score was 49.7%. The commonest presentation of breast cancer which is a painless breast lump only a third 128(34.1%) of the respondents knew about it. The participants had a positive attitude towards breast cancer examination. Practice of breast cancer examination was unacceptable. Out of 238 Of those who practiced breast self examination (63.5% ) (BSE), only 88(23.5%) of the respondents practiced monthly as required. Similarly only 85(22.7%) of the respondents had visited a doctor for clinical breast examination (CBE) in the past year. Mammogram practice was also unacceptable only 6 (1.6%) of the respondents had done mammogram in the past 2 years. There was no association between socio-demographic characteristics with the knowledge attitude and practice of breast cancer examination. Conclusion: The results of this study suggested that women attending at extension 2 clinic had low knowledge of breast cancer examination. Despite having positive attitude towards breast cancer examination, minority practiced breast self examination, clinical breast examination and mammogram. There was no association between socio-demographic characteristics with the knowledge of breast cancer. Therefore the Government should develop a policy on breast cancer screening. Awareness and advocacy campaign on breast cancer screening should be increased in the country.

In the last two decades, organisations have had to respond continually to the pressures of change in order to keep abreast of the variations in the economic climate amidst technological advances. The learning organisation was seen as the vision that would help organisations keep ahead of the ever-changing demands. The most influential model has been Senge’s (1990) five disciplines of the learning organisation encompassing personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning and systems thinking, and most discussions of the learning organisation draw on his theorising to a greater or lesser extent. Central to the concept of the learning organisation is knowledge and the individual, in particular, how knowledge is stored and shared across the organisation. To make the distinction between the organisational level and the individual level more salient, I developed the Individual/Organisational Orthogonal Model (I/O Orthogonal Model), which separates individual learning from organisational learning. The model assumes a social constructivist perspective. The aim of the model was to explore a range of concepts examined by Senge and other theorists across different groups of stakeholders, while questioning the assumption of shared culture or shared vision. To develop a more sophisticated understanding of the individual learning dimension, the model identifies the need to draw on the literature from psychology and education on the nature of learning, especially those theories which take a social constructivist perspective. Theories about interest and motivation are also included because they attempt to explain why individuals vary in their engagement with learning. Phase one of the empirical research addressed the question from the perspective of staff and management within the organisation using the case-study approach. This thesis examined trust from the traditional types of trust (i.e. incremental, span of trust, low trust etc), then compared the new construct of a workable level of trust with other recent conceptualisations of trust that have been realised in situations where there is a need for individuals to build trust quickly. Most importantly, this research gives credence to the importance of the context of the industry in which it is being conducted. The findings illustrated that advancement through becoming a learning organisation and advancement through becoming leaner and meaner by way of downsizing appears to be incompatible. The I/O Orthogonal Model proved a valuable starting point in identifying key gaps in the literature reviewed and as it suggested, some of the personal and emotional aspects came out in the findings. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis documents an investigation into the role that tacit knowledge takes in the mental life of senior managers. The research resulted from the author???s work in New South Wales in facilitating assessment and development centres over a five year period, carried out in collaboration with senior managers from several organizations. A frequent comment made by senior managers was that there seemed to be a gulf between the data obtained objectively from behaviourally measured managerial competencies and the senior managers??? own perceptions of their managerial behaviour. Having earlier researched the role of thought processes out of awareness, the author developed the overall aim of the present study ??? to develop some form of training procedures for senior managers that would enhance the use of tacit processes in their managerial behaviours. The present dissertation begins with a literature review related to the development of understanding of the role of tacit processes in the mental life of senior managers. First a review is presented of investigations of organisational behaviour reported in the literature on tacit knowledge, including issues such as learning, teams, leadership, distributed cognition and culture. Study of the role of tacit knowledge was found to be present in the study of management behaviours and during the process of the present research, related publications increased in frequency. Finally a review is presented of psychological research into the nature of tacit knowledge. This focuses on a range of historical and current views and on the author???s own earlier study of implicit learning carried out in the early 1990???s. Study One is focused on examination of the process of coding tacit assumptions. This begins with documentation of the ontology, epistemology and methodology underpinning this research. Grounded theory, a well-recognised method of qualitative analysis, was selected as most appropriate for this study and its philosophy, rationale and methods are presented. The aim of Study One was to examine the effect of repeated interviews on the codifying of tacit assumptions of senior managers. The initial research was with 13 senior managers, who were interviewed either once or on multiple occasions. The initial interviews of two of these senior managers were analysed as pilot studies, and these analyses are presented in the present dissertation. The main body of this research comprises multiple interviews (five each) carried out with two of the original thirteen senior managers. The results confirmed the importance of the method of investigation but failed to provide any depth of understanding. Apart from consolidating cognitive closure on a set of managerial competencies, attempting to render tacit knowledge explicit (making the tacit conscious) provided no other significant benefit to the senior managers. The extension of some of these previously tacit assumptions into current cognitive functioning, when coded, assisted in the retention of organisational knowledge but offered no real benefit to the senior managers themselves, no depth of self-knowledge. Study Two arose from a more realistic understanding of tacit processes. The aim of Study Two was to find a way of harnessing the influences of tacit assumptions without trying to surface them ??? to make them ???conscious.??? This is consistent with the writings of such researchers as Nonaka (1991), Baumard (1999) and Spender (2005). By adapting an existing method focusing on subtle mental processes (developed by Norm Kagan in the context of teaching counselling skills and developed further for research first by Diment, Walker and Hammer and then by Sheehan and McConkey ), the author has further developed a technique (The Explicit/Tacit Interface Technique ??? ET~IT) that accesses the tacit processes in the service of the senior manager???s aims. A multiperspective analysis was applied to the feedback interviews of six subjects. This generated a set of characteristics of the ET~IT that hold promise for it to become a useful management development tool. Cohen and Levinthal???s (1990) concept of ???absorptive capacity??? is discussed as a possible starting point for indicating individual differences in successful interfacing with tacit processes. Finally recommendations for further improvement, consideration of constraints and their minimization and methods for evaluating future research into the tacit assumptions of senior managers are presented. Study Two concludes with discussion of how the results can be used as part of senior management development.

<p>Project management has become a natural way of conducting activities in companies.  The goal is continuous improvement in project performance.  The way knowledge is managed in the company is crucial for gaining competitive advantage.  Knowledge management and learning, has been recognized by academics and practitioners as important to achieving success and improvement in projects.</p><p> </p><p>Achieving continuous improvement is considered a difficult task.  The difficulty lies in capturing and storing the knowledge and learning from one individual to another and from one project to another.  In this study the researcher has reviewed the mechanisms and processes from recent research which are supposed to facilitate knowledge transfer and learning.  Nevertheless, the academic and practitioner researchers do not seem to have a common ground on how to facilitate knowledge transfer and learning, even though there are many mechanisms and processes suggested.  Their results are not concurrent in effective and efficient facilitation of knowledge and learning.</p><p>The researcher has conducted a qualitative case study through seven interviews.  The empirical study was done in a Company X which provides air traffic services.  It shows that some of the practices institutionalized by Case Company X are different from what the literature suggests.  Moreover, the environment wherein these mechanisms and processes co-exist is particular from what the literature suggests.  A learning landscape of Case Company X is identified based on the empirical data.  Recommendations and suggestions are provided in the end to increase knowledge transfer and improve learning in and between projects at Case Company X.</p>

La littérature en knowledge management a connu une croissance exponentielle depuis quelques années, elle aborde une grande variété de sujets. Néanmoins, les travaux de recherche sur les gestionnaires en charge de mettre en place et de gérer la démarche de knowledge management sont très peu nombreux. Dans le tournant pratique (practice turn) apparu dans la théorie sociale et récemment mobilisé dans la littérature en gestion, la notion d'intentionnalité de l'acteur occupe une place dominante, alors que les pratiques pourraient être lus comme la résultante accidentelle de conditions et transformations de pratiques et discours antérieurs. Afin de contribuer à combler ces manques dans la littérature, mon travail de thèse porte sur la vie des knowledge managers dans une entreprise multinationale. Il s'agit de comprendre la nature de l'action que ces knowledge managers déploient pour parvenir à accomplir leurs missions dans un contexte organisationnel à la fois contraignant et facilitant où le KM doit se construire une place au sein des préoccupations quotidiennes multiples des dirigeants et des salariés. Cette recherche s'inspire du pragmatisme de Dewey. La méthode de recherche, construite à partir des travaux de Benner (1994) et van Manen (1990) qui sont ancrés dans la méthodologie de la phénoménologie interprétative, s'appuie sur des entretiens de type récits de pratique. Les participants à notre recherche sont sept knowledge managers dans un multinational. Ils sont localisés dans de différent pays, en France, en Autriche, au Canada, et en Chine. Avec chaque participant, nous avons fait deux entretiens approfondis de deux heures. L'analyse se fait en deux temps. Dans un premier temps, une analyse thématique permet d'identifier les points communs dans les expériences vécues par les knowledge managers. Elle nous conduit à proposer une image qui sert de fil rouge à notre analyse. Dans un deuxième temps, chaque expérience est analysée comme un paradigme c'est-à-dire une « façon d'être » un knowledge manager. La principale particularité du knowledge management est le fait que c'est une nouvelle fonction, qui n'a pas une place déjà marquée dans la vie de l'entreprise. Cette absence de territoire est une des principales réalités affrontées par les knowledge managers, qui doivent « faire avec » cette absence de territoire et tenter de trouver une place pour la fonction knowledge management. Cette particularité nous conduit à envisager les knowledge managers comme des « rafteurs », pratiquant le canoë-kayak en eaux vives. La rivière, ses obstacles et son puissant courant, renvoie au contexte organisationnel difficile pour les knowledge managers. Les knowledge managers tels des rafteurs, sont emportés par le courant qui les fait avancer et menacés par les obstacles. Ils se battent pour empêcher le bateau d'être renversé. Ils agissent pour éviter les obstacles et tirer le meilleur parti du courant. Les actions des knowledge managers peuvent être classées en trois catégories : intentionnelles, émergentes et contraintes. La dimension intentionnelle correspond à des actions de marketing interne. La dimension émergente peut être envisagée comme la recherche d'îlots de stabilité au milieu de la rivière. La fonction knowledge management cherche ainsi à trouver sa place en s'intégrant à des processus déjà existants au sein de l'organisation. La dimension contrainte est la nécessaire recherche de soutien que les knowledge managers doivent trouver pour mener à bien leur travail. De plus, nous avons identifié trois catégories de knowledge managers en fonction de leur capacité à faire avec l'absence de territoire de la fonction knowledge management. Parmi les sept knowledge managers, un a décidé de renoncer au poste du fait des difficultés, quatre sont toujours en train de se battre avec les obstacles et le puissant courrant pour obtenir une place dans la vie de l'organisation, et deux ont obtenu un certains succès.

<p> </p><p>Knowledge is considered nowadays as the main source of competitive advantage and, therefore, its appropriate application has been gaining great attention. The present study focuses on the use of integrative mechanisms in consulting firms as part of the knowledge application process during the action-planning stage of projects. Concepts such as knowledge, types of knowledge and Knowledge Management processes are clarified and then developed in a consulting firm context, in order to identify the advantages and disadvantages that this type of project-based organisations has due to the important role that knowledge plays in the consulting process. Furthermore, two main paradigms of Knowledge Management in consulting firms are developed based on a synthesis of the relevant literature. Next, different views of Knowledge Integration are exposed and the four mechanisms for Knowledge Integration proposed by Grant are assigned to each paradigm. These paradigms are used as theoretical base for the research and as selection criteria of two representative consulting firms, which constitute the unit of analysis of a qualitative study, which aims to rank the importance of the above mentioned Knowledge Integration mechanisms in the action-planning stage of the consulting project life-cycle.</p><p> </p><p>The research approach is deductive and subjective in terms of ontology. Critical realism more closely represents the study in terms of epistemology and the main sample characteristics are non-probabilistic, purposive and heterogeneous. The data are collected through surveys and semi-structured interviews and are analysed following a commonly accepted qualitative data analysis method.</p><p> </p><p>The study results regard the ranking of the four integrative mechanisms in terms of their usefulness during the action-planning stage of consulting projects. The results cannot be generalised due to the sample characteristics but they qualitatively reflect the importance of mechanisms for integration of knowledge in these two firms during this particular stage. By doing so, the study implies that, although the two consulting firms represent different paradigms of Knowledge Management, they have a similar predisposition to give priority to a certain Knowledge Integration mechanism against another.</p>

This is a dissertation on how certain cognitive limitations inform a theory of knowledge. Explanations in terms of the pure indexical "I" indicate a class of cognitive limitations. "I" cannot be completely eliminated from any successful explanation of how the world is intelligible to me and only I can refer to myself with the indexical "I." This raises the possibility that there are thoughts that I can think that cannot be thought by anyone else. Given what an epistemological theory must say about the definition, structure, and instances of knowledge and epistemic merit in general, such limits to cognitive access must arise both in its explanations of ordinary cases and its specialized theoretical concepts. The main contention of this dissertation is that it must be possible for an epistemological theory to plausibly account for these limitations.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Although there exist some people management process models related to the education and training of software engineers, there are no process models that are adapted to specific software engineering contexts and processes. In this paper, we suggest a set of education and training activities that are applicable in the context of a handover process. We then evaluate these activities within twenty organizations. Although our results reveal great diversity of using these activities, they still show that they are realistic and appropriately mirror the industrial status within a software handover context. / <p>© 2011 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. QC 20120223</p>